Elizabethtown Area School District Honors Local Veterans

November 18, 2016- Elizabethtown Area School District saluted 27 local veterans during its ninth annual Veterans Day Ceremony. The program afforded school officials and high school students an opportunity to salute local veterans for their service to the country. It was also an opportunity for students to learn about the contributions that veterans have made and learn about the meaning of the day.

Elizabethtown Area School District board president Terry Seiders joined superintendent of schools Dr. Michele Balliet in thanking the veterans who had gathered for the program around the school’s flagpole. All five branches of the military – Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy – were represented among the veterans who gathered for the ceremony. Each veteran was presented with a certificate of appreciation and gratitude for their service that read as follows:

With grateful appreciation for your service to our country, the Elizabethtown Area School District presents you with this certificate as a sign of our everlasting gratitude. We will always remember and honor all who have served the United States of America in our Armed Forces to protect our freedom.

“We are extremely fortunate that these honorees ultimately served this great country,” said Balliet. “Some volunteered, some were drafted, a few fought on foreign lands, but regardless of how and why and when they served, they performed the most selfless civic duty of all, they served their country proud and with dignity in the United States Armed Services.”

High school seniors Harrison Eichelberger, Kathryn Shenk, and Kent Taylor also took part in the program along with the high school marching band. Taylor delivered the invocation, Eichelberger read a brief history of Veterans Day, and Shenk read a tribute poem to the Veterans. The marching band performed the national anthem.

During her remarks, Balliet challenged the more than 150 high school students in attendance to never forget the sacrifices of our veterans both past and present.

“Today is a time for us to honor those who made the choice, made the sacrifice to serve our nation. To protect its liberties and citizens, and in some instance pay the ultimate price for our freedoms. I am humbled to stand before such a great group of men and women and I ask our students to reflect on this day and its purpose and realize America and all we get to do is not by accident,” Balliet concluded.